Samson Januchowski

December of 2006, I was given a doggy bowl, along with a collar and leash for Christmas, with a note from my husband, "let's go pick out your dog". I still had 12 & 16 year old sons at home, at that time. I searched the newspaper trying to decide if I wanted another Pomeranian, like the one which died 3 years earlier or another breed. I also had a Corgi or Shelty on the list of possibilities. All I saw was Pomeranians available. I had wanted a little female, like my previous Pomeranian, but none were available, only males. With the prompting of my husband and children, we went to N.C. to the breeder, to take a look.

There were 3 puppies, 2 Orange Sable and 1 Wolf Sable. I was kind of eying the Wolf, since he was such a stand out. My youngest son, Timothy, looked at me, after observing them in play, including their interactions and pointed to this little Orange Sable as the one I should get. I decided on that little Orange Sable, picked by my son.

We then decided his name by each putting in top names, ranking them. Then by process of elimination, we ended up with two names, between Samson or Axel. Samson's name was picked by all of us.

This little guy was absolutely amazing, he bonded so well to me. If he was in another's arms, the minute I got close, he was jumping to my arms. It was ready or not, here I come to be with you. He would jump up on the couch, to be next to me, then jump on the back of the couch, with his paw on my shoulder, surveying "his kingdom".

I trained him to "sit", "lay down", "shake", "high-five", "speak" (louder & indoor voice) and "stay" (he would only move, when the person who gave the command released him). He picked those up so quickly. I thought it would be cute to train him to play dead, with "Bang! Dead". He would fall down to his side, but quickly jump up in a resurrection.

Funny & Memorable Moments:

He always had kibble down for him to eat anytime he was hungry. The last couple of years, he would get an evening "wet food". When I was in the kitchen cooking, he would come in, get a piece of his kibble and drop/throw it at my feet and look up at me. It was as if he was requesting "Mom, get me some wet food, now!" He also had a knack for taking a piece of kibble out of his bowl and throwing it up in the air and batting it around before eating it.

Our daughter had a Morky (Maltese & Yorkshire Terrier) she would bring over to play with him. Samson had an old sock with a couple of knots in it for playing. Him and that Morky would play tug of war with that sock, each at one end.

My 16 year old son, had a turkey sandwich, he sat down next to him on the bed. He left it there to go get something to drink. When he came back, little Samson had grabbled his sandwich, even though it was almost bigger than him and was running with it.

Samson was a small 5 lb Pomeranian with a bigger than life personality. His joy, intelligence and personality made him a dog like no other. He loved to go "bye" "bye" with us. He loved people and was very social. He was fearless; no vacuum cleaner, thunderstorm or shooting off of cannons across the road ever caused him to be afraid. He was the best companion ever, the Christmas gift, I enjoyed every day, for over 15 years.

Joe and Victoria Januchowski